2021/04/17 05:11
HARRISONVILLE, Mo. (AP) — A jury recommended on Friday that a Kansas City man receive the maximum sentence for killing two women nearly a decade apart and leaving their bodies in the same field.
The Cass County jury recommended that Kylr Yust, 32, serve life in prison for second-degree murder in the death of Jessica Runions, 21, of Raymore, and 15 years in prison for voluntary manslaughter in the killing of 17-year-old Kara Kopetsky, of Belton.
Yust was charged with first-degree murder, but the Cass County jury convicted him of lesser charges on Thursday. Formal sentencing was scheduled for June 7.
The two women were both seen with Yust before they disappeared. Runions left a party with him before she went missing in September 2016. Kopetsky had taken out a protection order against Yust a month before she was last seen leaving Belton High School in April 2007.